You know you live in a free country when...

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The poor standing in the U.S. is primarily due to reporters not giving up sources, or crossing security lines. I am all for freedom of the press, but I am NOT for granting special privileges to the press. If I have material information in a criminal case, I am required to provide that information, or risk imprisonment: reporters should not get special treatment. Same thing with security lines.

Note that none of this significantly impacts the actual reporting, including what is reported on and what is restricted from being reported.

So you're saying that other countries have free press because the government forces them to expose their sources? Au contraire.. Doctors, lawyers and priests also have confidential relationships with people they talk to. If a doctor has information on a criminal investigation, I'm sure he will not break that confidential relationship? How would reporters be any different? In a free country, people are entitled to an opinion of their own. If you don't like it when someone writes something about you, sue them

So you're saying that other countries have free press because the government forces them to expose their sources?

No, I am not saying anything of the sort, and I am not sure why you think I am. I am saying that many countries give press special treatment, and that I think that's a wrong thing to do (also, many other nations don't give the press special treatment, but either don't have laws requiring people to provide material evidence, or don't enforce them, which is often the case with the overburdened j